Local elections: The story of how Montenegro imposed a name on Espinho

The new PSD municipal headquarters in Espinho is about 150 meters from Luís Montenegro's home. Despite this and the numerous invitations he's received since becoming party leader, Montenegro has never set foot there. In fact, the Social Democratic leader wants to distance himself from Ricardo Bastos Sousa, who leads his party's local structure in Espinho and with whom he has had a long-standing political feud. This feud took a new turn this week, with his National Political Commission taking over the city's municipal elections.

Ricardo Bastos Sousa described Jorge Ratola's candidacy as "a personal settling of scores" by Luís Montenegro. Ratola, who until now was the prime minister's deputy and whose connection to Espinho is limited to serving as Pinto Moreira's chief of staff during his first term, was announced as the PSD's candidate for mayor this Tuesday, after the local council had been pushing Bastos Sousa for months.

Ricardo Sousa Bastos had been chosen in November by the council he presides over and to which he ran, making it clear that his objective would be to run for the Chamber.

An ancient enmity

Since 2001, Ricardo Bastos Sousa and Luís Montenegro have been on opposing sides within the PSD political scene. Bastos Sousa, for example, was on the side of Rui Rio and Jorge Moreira da Silva when Montenegro ran for the leadership. Interestingly, Moreira da Silva would go on to achieve a better result in Espinho in these direct elections than he did nationally.

With this background, and after being removed from the lists of deputies by Luís Montenegro, it was not surprising that the party's national leadership opposed the idea of ​​having Ricardo Bastos Sousa as a local government candidate.

On February 28th, the PSD's municipal coordinator, Pedro Alves, actually went to Espinho to explain the reasons for this. Citing an internal poll, Alves asserted that Bastos Sousa would not be a winning candidate and questioned the way the Espinho municipal council decided on his nomination without waiting for national guidelines, announcing it publicly without consulting the party leadership, a situation that has often led to the disqualification of municipal candidates in the past.

The plenary session had about 100 members present, and Ricardo Bastos Sousa's nomination was again nominated with 61 votes in favor, nine abstentions, and no votes against. But that wouldn't be the end of the story.

The name was rejected at a meeting of the district political committee (only Ricardo Sousa Bastos voted for him) and the process was taken over by the national committee, which would impose the name of Jorge Ratola.

"So what happened here? What happened is that the party was used by its president for a personal settling of scores that directly targets me and has as its sole purpose my political elimination," Ricardo Bastos Sousa denounced at a press conference this Tuesday.

"They mentioned a supposed poll conducted in October 2024, to which we were never given access. It should be noted that the name now chosen did not appear in the supposed poll, so this argument has no credibility or support. And let me tell you: if polls had ever been used to rule out a candidate, Luís Montenegro would never have run for the Espinho City Council twice," attacked the leader of the PSD Espinho, recalling the year 2001, when the candidacy of the then very young Montenegro divided the party in the city and pitted them against each other for the first time.

Management guarantees that it did not violate statutes

"The council acted in defiance of the national leadership's guidelines. It chose and made public the name without the national strategic guidelines being approved," a source close to Luís Montenegro told VISÃO. He believes that "the process was immediately tainted by the section's political committee, which wanted to rush the selection process without anyone understanding why."

Furthermore, the same source denies that there was any violation of the party's statutes and emphasizes that given the "impasse" that meant the council insisting on the name that the party leadership rejected, a decision was made, with an invitation to Jorge Ratola, who accepted after several other personalities showed themselves unavailable.

IL says that “Espinho cannot accept being a toy”

With the current mayor of Espinho considering an independent candidacy against the candidate nominated by her party, the PS, the PSD dreamed of regaining the Chamber, despite the damage caused by the suspicions raised by Operation Vortex, in which Pinto Moreira, who was once very close to Montenegro, is a defendant.

Trying to capitalize on the division within the Socialist Party (PS), Ricardo Bastos Sousa had begun talks with the CDS (Social Democratic Party). And, since the IL had not yet presented a candidate, he hoped to reach an agreement with the Liberals. But Montenegro's intervention caused the centrists to slam the door and revived the specter of Operation Vortex, precipitating a public statement by the local IL, highly critical of the entire process.

"Given the dire state of the city and its municipal administration, and the enormous reputational damage Espinho's image has suffered under the PS and PSD administrations of recent years, Luís Montenegro has chosen an advisor from the party's offices. He is certainly not concerned about the city or the people of Espinho; he is concerned with his own personal interests and affairs," reads a statement from the Espinho IL, which even speaks of "childishness" and argues that "Espinho cannot accept being a plaything in the hands of partisan political interests, with warring councils and bad politicians who put their personal concerns above the city."

Speaking to VISÃO, the leader of the IL in Espinho, Ricardo Pais Oliveira, assured that “there was never any agreement” with the PSD, but admitted that he was waiting for the situation to be clarified before assuming that the liberals would have their own candidate.

"Faced with this disregard for the principle of local autonomy and the expressed will of the municipal structures, the CDS Espinho reaffirms its determination to continue fighting for the interests of our region. Therefore, we will present a candidacy in the upcoming local elections, driven by the clear desire to resolve Espinho's problems and respond to the real needs of our community," reads a statement from the local CDS, which concludes with a "solidarity hug to Ricardo Bastos Sousa, municipal president of the PSD Espinho, recognizing his effort, dedication, and spirit of dialogue throughout this process."

News corrected at 6:25 p.m.: with the information that IL never reached a coalition agreement with the PSD in Espinho